Cuba: The Pearl of the Antilles*
The first African slaves were brought to Cuba in 1522,
after the Spanish had destroyed the local Arawak population with disease and
ruthless exploitation. Even during the eleven-month British occupation of
Havana, 4000 more slaves were brought into Cuba. In 1763, the Anglo-Spanish
Peace Treaty returned Cuba to Spain in exchange for Florida and the Real
Compania de Comercio of Cadiz had the monopoly on Cuban trade until 1765. When
Cuban trade was extended, fortresses were built around Havana, which became
prosperous from the slave trade.
The fortress called “La
Cabaña” was built in 1766 to prevent the other fortress “El Morro” being
taken and to improve the defences following the exchange with Britain. Havana
was then the most fortified city in the world. It was known as “The Bulwark of
the Indies”. The fortress’ high stone walls still dominate the port and city.
By 1791, Cuban whites were demanding the right to import
slaves. The black slaves in Saint-Domingue had risen up against their French
masters and Haiti was the first black
Republic. This created a world sugar crisis and Cuba’s future was opened up.
Slavery brought great prosperity to Cuba. 30,000 white refugees came from Haiti
to help control the massive slave population. They were determined to keep the
slaves from revolt.
The Africans thought they were
going to be eaten by whites because of the way they were examined and sold.
During the Trans Atlantic voyage called “The
Middle Passage”, the slaves were forced to dance on the deck, to prevent
melancholy and keep them healthy. Those who were reluctant or too weak were
beaten. When ordered to sing, they sang of their sorrow. Often they were given
alcohol although drunkenness was punished on the plantations. This was their
only escape from reality and became a frequent part of religious rituals and
casting spells against the white man, or in dancing the tale of their capture
and sorrow. The children were taught the songs and dances to remember their
homeland and songs were the only way some of their languages survived.
Christianisation attempted to
eliminate the “superstitions” and to break the slaves’ ties to Africa. Many
slave owners were Roman Catholic missionaries. The slaves brought their African
gods, myths and rituals, which the Christian priests could never eradicate. The
mixture of Catholicism and Yoruba religions created Santeria or Regla de Ocha, which is practised today.
Whites assumed
that the blacks were naturally musical, making racial assumptions about their
social behaviour and attempts to keep their culture alive. The slave owners
laughed at the drumming songs but they were really afraid. Slaves expressed
forbidden thoughts in their own language, using satire in the face of their owners.
On many plantations drums were banned, as they feared the slaves were using
them to communicate to other plantations and to organize revolt.
The Congo Tribe was the largest group in Cuba; they were
particularly esteemed for their fidelity and vigour. The slaves were kept in
tribal groups to ensure division from others and to keep them under control.
Life on the plantations was brutal and there were frequent uprisings, escapes
and mass-suicides; slaves believed that after death they were reborn in Africa.
Their despair led to mental illness, angry retaliation, and murder, maiming of
cattle, crop destruction, breaking of tools, or resistance by being slow or
lazy.
Women could
improve their lot by giving sexual favours and looking after the children. Women
worked in field throughout their pregnancy and a mother could buy the freedom
of her unborn child for $25. Many women and children died, or were deformed, by
the labour, punishment, and poor hygiene. A hole would be dug to accommodate
the baby while the pregnant mother was tied to the ground and whipped. When born
they were given to a “criollera” or nurse and the mother was sent back to work.
Shackles caused wounds and infections, which were the cause of many
miscarriages. Women resisted by poisoning their masters, allegedly inducing
self-abortions (believed to be by African magic, but usually the result of
punishment and cruel treatment) and murdering their own children to send their
souls to Africa and freedom.
Suicide, self harming and hurting each other was common on
all plantations, but it was regarded as resistance and was punished brutally.
The despair, desperation and distress of the Africans left them the physical
and mental scarring of holocaust survivors. By 1840, more than half Cuba’s
population was slaves. If imports of slaves had been stopped and slavery had
been continued, in 20 years the slaves would have been extinct as deaths
exceeded births in the horrific conditions on the plantations. Slavery
continued officially until 1880.
After “freedom” mulattos, (mixed race) had higher
status, because their whiter skin was prized. In Juan Manzano’s Slave
autobiography he states that “among people of colour there existed the general
wish to whiten one’s descendants insofar as possible and distance themselves as
much as possible from slavery”. By “passing as white” many were able to move up
in society but had to segregate themselves from their family and origins. For
most former slaves freedom meant homelessness and working for next to nothing
in the same brutal conditions, with no rights. They wanted independence from Spain
and many joined forces with the poor white farmers, “guajiros”, to fight for
real freedom. The former slave owners remained loyal to Spain but knew they
were in a minority.
Spain was losing and was about to withdraw when the US
intervened. They had coveted Cuba for a long time and many offers were made to
buy it for its white gold – sugar. John Quincy Adams called it “ a ripening
plum in the lap of the Union”. Cuba was freed from Spanish rule by US
intervention in 1898 but was subject to the Platt Agreement until 1932. This
gave the US rights to intervene in the island’s affairs and government.
Although backed by the ruling white elite, the US-Spanish peace treaty excluded
the Cubans! Guantanamo Bay still remains in US control! Jose Marti, the leading
Cuban politician who was killed in the war had prophesied “Once the US is in
Cuba, who will get it out?”
The final
battle of 1898 was in off the coast of Santiago at 9.30 am Sun 3
July. Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete sailed out of Santiago harbour with
an ill-equipped fleet. They had just sailed from Cadiz and had not been given
any ammunition from the Spanish Government. They attempted to break the US
blockade but were overpowered. It was a doomed attempt to save Spain’s military
honour after losing the Philippines to the US. Santiago was already being land
seiged by the US and the people were starving to death. Cervera begged for
supplies but they could not defend the city. He knew the blockade was too
strong and that his sortie was suicide. Every vessel was destroyed in a 4-hour
massacre leaving 2,227 Spanish dead, 160 wounded and 1670 prisoners for 1
American dead and 1 wounded!
The US controlled regime exploited the land and the poor
farmers, exiling anyone who spoke out. They disbanded the black armies, but left
white officials in positions of local power. Political corruption and
instability ensued. The 1912 black uprising against the endemic discrimination
was brutally oppressed by US troops, who killed 3000 Cubans. By 1920, the US
owned two thirds of Cuba’s land and mines. Prohibition in the US led to
“Tourism” and the total exploitation of the population. The Machado and Batista
governments were US puppets and encouraged the prostitution of Cuba.
Havana became the sex capital of America. Mulattas were favoured
as prostitutes and dancers in new casinos and drinking establishments run by
Mafia. 13-year-old boys and girls were openly traded. Cuban musicians were in
great demand in the USA but were still poorly paid and segregated. By the1930s,
there were riots against the Machado regime, leading to torture and
disappearances. Batista seized power in a US backed military coup creating
further lawless and corruption. By 1946, the Mafia was holding conferences in
Havana, with Lucky Luciano as guest of honour!
Cuba attracted many writers and
artists as homosexuality was openly accepted. Lorca described it as “an island
paradise” where he had artistic freedom and could indulge his fascination with
death and the occult. Hemmingway is
Cuba’s most famous visitor; his drunken behaviour was totally accepted, as was
that of visiting Hollywood stars.
The poet Nicolas Guillen, (1902-89), played a leading role in the emerging
Afro-Cuban movement and transformed Cuban literature, music and dance. He
believed in social and racial equality. As a journalist in the Spanish Civil
War, he was Republican and became a Communist. The Batista years he spent in
exile from Cuba and his works protested against the repression and the US
domination of Cuba. After 1959 he returned to Cuba and in 1961 was a founder of
the Union Nacional de Escritores y Artistas Cubanos. He was awarded Poet
Laureate and made Cultural Ambassador of the Revolution.
His social poetry expresses
anguish, racial discrimination, poverty, love and the rhythm of the “Son”, “the guitar of the people” that
passed in to the salons of the aristocracy and influenced the nature of their
music and literature; the music of ritual songs, dances and rhythms that
survived slavery. As a child he had met with the racial prejudice of the
dominant elite of ignorant, vain cattlemen. African roots were trivialised, or
rejected, which sacrificed the sense of self-worth. The 1930s saw a backlash.
Guillen wanted a pan-Cuban culture, with recognition of native music and African
elements as equal and not inferior. Black Cubans needed to be proud of their
identity; black beauty was to be praised. Blacks could not see themselves in
European Greek ideals and Guillen believed this created self-hate and a
perception of being ugly.
Exploitation at low wages
continues and black Cubans rarely acquire skills or education. Racial
discrimination still exists; yet Cuba is no different than other countries.
There is a universal need to rejoice in diversity and to find a common ground,
to begin to heal the wounds of the past.
©Copyright Helena Kean
* Walter Goodman, a British painter whose 1873 book of paintings and illustrations about Cuba is titled "The Pearl of the Antilles, or an Artist in Cuba".
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